Problem executing trackPageview with Google Analytics.

Question

I'm trying to capture the clicks of certain download links and track them in Google Analytics. Here's my code

var links = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
for (var i = 0; i < links.length; i++) {
    linkpath = links[i].pathname;
    if( linkpath.match(/\.(pdf|xls|ppt|doc|zip|txt)$/) || links[i].href.indexOf("mode=pdf") >=0 ){
     //this matches our search
     addClickTracker(links[i]);
    }
}
function addClickTracker(obj){
    if (obj.addEventListener) {
     obj.addEventListener('click', track , true);
    } else if (obj.attachEvent) {
     obj.attachEvent("on" + 'click', track);
    }
}
function track(e){
    linkhref = (e.srcElement) ? e.srcElement.pathname : this.pathname;
    pageTracker._trackPageview(linkhref);

 }

Everything up until the pageTracker._trackPageview() call works. In my debugging linkhref is being passed fine as a string. No abnormal characters, nothing. The issue is that, watching my http requests, Google never makes a second call to the tracking gif (as it does if you call this function in an "onclick" property). Calling the tracker from my JS console also works as expected. It's only in my listener.

Could it be that my listener is not deferring the default action (loading the new page) before it has a chance to contact Google's servers? I've seen other tracking scripts that do a similar thing without any deferral.

Answer 1

Try

pageTracker._trackPageview('/pagex/downloadlink.html')

Also, just for fun make sure the GA code is loaded first before this script. Sometime GA is picky and weird like that.

Let me know if that helps

@ctrentmarketing

Answer 2

Well here is an update, I have been using this script to accomplish this task for me: http://www.tatvic.com/trackExternal.js